THE new West Yorkshire Police forensic technology suite was recently opened by Sir Alec Jeffrey and has been named after him for his pioneering breakthrough in the development of DNA fingerprinting.

This changed the way we police and prosecute offenders. It is a great development, as will be the forensic technology suite which has opened at Keighley and is a great investment.

With the new state-of-the-art suites the major investigation teams now have the ability to have ‘real time’ filming straight from the scene to the briefing room. The suites are at the cutting edge of preventing and detecting crime.

It has been suggested that even the senior investigating officer – the person in charge – wouldn’t need to go to the scene as they would be able to see everything on screen.

Armchair detectives or TV detectives? Hopefully this will not happen and the person in charge will always attend scenes and allow their emotions and senses to understand and feel what had taken place ‘real time’ and first-hand. There is no substitute.

While film is extremely helpful, it can also make it difficult to understand the whole essence of a scene. Basics need to be remembered as technology moves forwards.

Great investments? Most certainly, but lurking still in the undergrowth are the police commissioner – also known as white elephants.

They have their pensions secured. Wouldn’t they have more support as volunteers which the country keeps crying out for instead of being highly paid (with additional expenses of course).

Or are they, as people suggest PCs – Political Commissioners ?

While the above development is excellent – even more so in a time of recession – are we forgetting one thing. That our greatest investment is in people.

So now we have state-of-the-art infrastructure and cutting edge technology, can we now please make people a priority so they do not feel deflated, devalued and disillusioned.

We should never forget that on a daily basis people are at the fore in the life-threatening arena for the good of us all.

Our support and respect for them is essential.

As a retired Senior Investigating Officer with numerous accolades for the investigation of serious crime, I worry that without the right people doing the job we will all suffer in the future.

Bob Bridgestock

Retired Detective Superintendent, West Yorkshire Police

Conviction without a body

MANY people will wince at the insensitivity of the reward offered for information about the Peter Falconio disappearance, but the issue raises an interesting point.

I have no doubt the Australian Courts were exemplary in their examination of the matter. There remains, however, the question: How is it possible to secure a conviction for a murder in the absence of a body?

Many may, quite reasonably, ask how it is possible to prove an alleged murderer’s guilt ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ if we cannot answer the following two questions: Do we know that the victim is dead? That is to say do we know for certain a murder actually took place?

Moreover, do we know for certain how, where and when the victim met his end?

DJH

Huddersfield

Reasons for low turnout

I HAVE read the many acknowledgements from politicians, both successful or not, in the local elections.

I have also enjoyed the various expositions of political philosophy that try to explain the reasons for the astonishingly low turnout of voters.

Clr Mehboob Khan even seemed to be claiming satisfaction with the situation in Kirklees as part of the reason.

We are happy with the potential library closures? Happy with the imposition of a deeply flawed Local Development Plan?

Our only hope in Kirklees is that those groups not close to the Labour group realise they can vote against them and Clr Khan needs their support. Don’t sell the people of Kirklees short anymore.

I don’t doubt that self interest or party politics will play a part, but this is why people don’t vote anymore.

No councillor listens until election time so why should we play the same game?

Trevor Woolley

Linthwaite

Road rumble grumbles

ABANAZAR, of Almondbury, (Corrugated road, letters 12/05/12) is correct in stating that Greenhill Bank Road is benefiting, if you can call it that, from the rumble strip effect of the resurfacing carried out the first week in April.

The residents in Totties, Scholes and New Mill also had high hopes that the few potholes and poor road surface would be a thing of the past. How wrong they were!

Less than two weeks after the road was resurfaced a pothole appeared and was refilled. There are now six further potholes/damaged areas that you have to avoid as you drive along, teeth chattering and spectacles falling off.

On contacting Kirklees Highways Department I was told: “Not to worry. Resurfacing with the old ground-up tarmac was a tried and tested method of resurfacing of non-major roads.

“The rumble strip effect, causing the car to vibrate as you drive over the surface, will gradually get less as the surface settles. Also, the contractor is responsible for repairing any potholes that appear for the next two years.”

I don’t know if my car and nerves will survive that long. The road surface certainly won’t as some of it has departed in less than two months.

R Wood

Scholes

Highly emotive funerals

I WENT to both funeral services held at Huddersfield Parish Church for soldiers Anton Frampton and Daniel Wilford.

I was very moved and very proud to be a resident of the town. Ordinary people from all walks of life came to pay their respects to the six young men who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan.

My best wishes go out to the families of the six brave men and I’m sure the people of Huddersfield wish them all the best, as was clear in the range of emotions displayed during the readings at the service and the emotion of Pte Frampton’s mother which touched me deeply.

So again I would like to say how proud I am to say I’m from Huddersfield.

We salute the six young men, brave and true.

E Mulvey

Golcar

Unruly rugby kids

ON SATURDAY, May 5 I was fortunate to attend the match between Catalan Dragons and Huddersfield Giants at the Stade Brutus Stadium in France along with the 1,000 Giants supporters.

Imagine my dismay when the officials for whatever reason decided to segregate our supporters by bringing in coach loads of children with free tickets into the stand where away supporters were allocated seating.

These children were not with parents, but teachers who had no control over their behaviour.

The children were unruly, abusive to Giants players and launched missiles which included chewing gum, plastic bottles and fruit.

To their credit, no Giants supporters appeared to retaliate, but it was very off putting during the game.

If the 1,000 supporters had been allowed to sit together to get behind the team with combined vocal support who knows what the outcome of the game could have been.

C Byrne

Moldgreen

eBay is killing our shops

MANY people have seen shops having to close because of lack of sales which, as we all know, leads to job losses and rising unemployment.

But surely one of the biggest culprits for this has got to be eBay.

The internet turns people into wheeler dealers on the computer and they look for bargains and make bids for items other people are selling.

They go into the shops and say ‘I can get that cheaper on eBay’ and this and this alone is why trade is slumping.

We no longer have secondhand shops doing well and many other traders just can’t sell due to this. I think we need to tighten up with eBay and put limits on it so we can get trade on its feet again. Too many shops have closed, too many jobs have been lost so something needs to be done about it.